V-Flyer

Hi
I'm flying to Miami on VS005 on 10th August, due to land at 16:05. I've heard immigration at Miami Airport is a pain in the bum. Has anybody had any experience of flying to Miami on a Friday afternoon? Was it busy? I've managed to get tickets for a football game as a surprise for my husband and it starts at 19:30 so just want to make sure we can get there on time.
Thanks







Edit to thread title by mod for clarity..... Nick

Hi bobby23.
We landed there on Sun 6th May at about 4pm and it took us around 25 mins to clear immigration and then another 40 mins to get luggage and pass through secondary immigration.
So all in all it took just over an hour from VS05 landing until we met our relatives in the arrivals hall.

Then we had to get the hire car so 19.30 could be pushing it a bit but hopefully you will be lucky.

There was a discussion on this a couple of weeks ago
forum/index.php?f=4&t=274631&rb_v=viewtopic

bobbi23 wrote:Hi
I'm flying to Miami on VS005 on 10th August, due to land at 16:05. I've heard immigration at Miami Airport is a pain in the bum. Has anybody had any experience of flying to Miami on a Friday afternoon? Was it busy? I've managed to get tickets for a football game as a surprise for my husband and it starts at 19:30 so just want to make sure we can get there on time.
Thanks

Experience of MIA on a Friday afternoon ? Actually the day doesn't seem to matter - it's a hell -hole 24/7 365. My experiences at MIA have never been positive ! - the one and only time I've arrived to find a reasonably empty immigration hall (on AA) I got pulled for secondary screening (I left about 3 hours after my brief encounter with the original official....).I think you might be slightly optimistic about getting to the game but others seem to have had far less aggro than me at MIA. What cabin are you in?
DL

I went through there on a Saturday and we got to Fort Launderdale for 7.30pm after experiencing the torture of immigration/luggage/customs/hire car ques.
7.30 should be OK.

Both times I've flown into MIA on VS5 it has been fine, although to be fair the first time (Oct 2008) the schedule meant a 13.50 arrival, so it was quieter. I feared a massive wait the second time we went a year later but we lucked an and were the first people to get diverted from the main "non-US" room queue which was completely full - so we got through and were on the Rental Car shuttle about 25min after we arrived at the gate!

Mmmmmmm the few times we have been to MIA it has been at least 1.5-2.5 hours through immigration/customs! Hope it s much better for the start of your holiday!

It's abject misery at any time.

well it's not a Friday, it's Sunday. but immigration only took us about 15 mins today. no other flights in front, and was in upper.

I went through on Friday 4th May and it only took about 20-25 mins. I guess it's hit and miss.

On the walk to baggage reclaim we passed through the back of another immigration area which was heaving.

We're sitting in premium so hopefully get off the plane pretty quick.

Thanks everyone.

Think you just have to be prepared for a wait, then if you breeze through..happy days. Enjoy your trip!

scnickr wrote:I went through on Friday 4th May and it only took about 20-25 mins. I guess it's hit and miss.

On the walk to baggage reclaim we passed through the back of another immigration area which was heaving.

+1, when we arrived in MIA on Sat 2nd June, we passed through a small immigration point quite quickly (we were in the back row of Economy on the upper deck so were about the 10th party off the aircraft) - took longer for the bags to come out after the long walk past the other immigration point.